Zach Merrett at a career crossroads over how to handle being targeted

By Jake Niall

April 7, 2018 — 3.49pm

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In the opening round, Zach Merrett was taken out by a high bump and the Bombers managed to cover the loss of their premier midfielder. Last weekend, he was tagged by Ross Lyon and the Dons were completely eclipsed.

Merrett's notional midfield opponent against the Dockers was Bailey Banfield, a hitherto obscure second-game rookie, but it is no overstatement to say he was really curtailed by Lyon, the AFL's master of negation.

Essendon's Zach Merrett is finding out how tough it is when everyone knows how good you are.Credit:Darrian Traynor

If there's a way to stop someone or something, Lyon will find it. Among the coaching fraternity, he's Leader of the Opposition.

So having been concussed and then tagged and feathered by Lyon, it has been a challenging couple of weeks for Merrett, who has reached that stage of a talented midfielder's career when the opposition zeroes in on him and he has to deal with either taggers, a physical buffeting or some other method for containing him.

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The Crows didn't set out to take Merrett out. It just happened that he was open, playing the ball and Richard Douglas, in that brief moment in time, decided to bump. Essendon reckon Merrett, who sat out the second half, did not carry any lingering effects into the Fremantle game.

In 2018, we should expect the Zach attacks to continue, in whatever form. While many, if not most, teams seldom deploy old-school, stand-on-your-toes taggers, they will still single out a midfielder for attention if they reckon, a) reducing his output matters and, b) they can do it.

Scott Pendlebury's job on Patrick Cripps is a textbook example of the modern method for restricting opposition playmakers. Pendlebury wasn't tagging Cripps. He was asked to man him at the stoppages and reduce his impact – a mission that the Collingwood skipper accomplished.

Merrett, like Cripps, is a fifth-year star whom rival clubs have in the cross-hairs. Unlike Cripps, who is the size of a centre half-forward, Merrett is relatively small, measuring a nuggety 180cm. He's Essendon's most damaging mid because, while Dyson Heppell has size and an indefatigable work rate, Merrett is quick and can really kick.

Zach Merrett remains crucial to Essendon's hopes.Credit:AAP

Smaller midfielders are easier targets than the bulls such as Dustin Martin, Patty Dangerfield and Nat Fyfe, each of whom has the size and power to win their own ball and can be relocated forward, where taggers fear to tread. Cripps, as yet, doesn't have that versatility.

Merrett should brace for the kind of attention that another small and highly skilled midfielder, Marc Murphy, copped when the Carlton skipper became a major midfield force several years ago. If such attention is a kind of rite of passage for the elite young midfielders, it will be pronounced if they lack support or can't adapt.

Merrett didn't play poorly against the Dockers. He had 24 disposals, of which 15 were contested. Only twice in his career has he won more disputed balls.

Over his career, about 30 per cent of his possessions have been won in contests, and it's evident that he's most damaging outside the contest.

The Dockers, clearly, focused on - and succeeded in - preventing Merrett from getting in space, from having room to run and create. They did not stop Merrett winning the ball. They forced him to win it where he was less dangerous.

Merrett wouldn't be on the opposition's watch list if he was playing for Geelong behind the Trinity, or with the Giants, who have Josh Kelly, Dylan Shiel and the rest. Merrett is first in Essendon's order of midfield merit.

Essendon's midfield has deficits in size, quality and experience. Darcy Parish is a kid learning his craft and, like David Zaharakis and Merrett, is just 180cm. Devon Smith, the pick of the seasoned recruits to date, is 176cm.

David Myers has a large body, but injuries have conspired against him. Brendon Goddard is nearly 33 and doesn't play as a genuine mid. There's a situation vacant in the midfield for a large-bodied insider – a Cripps/Josh Kennedy type – since Jobe Watson's retirement. Jake Stringer's career to date suggests he's a part-time mid, at best.

The Bombers have high hopes for Josh Begley (188cm, 89 kilograms) and Kyle Langford (191cm, 90kg) as prospective midfielders. Free agency is another avenue to improvement and few clubs would be a better fit for Rory Sloane, assuming they can accommodate that hefty salary, which will be $850,000 plus.

In 2018, however, Merrett is the standout in the engine room. As an earnest and highly focused 22-year-old, he'll be doing all the right things to meet the challenge of being the player that the opposition is seeking to close down.

In this era, when every act of violence – even careless acts – can bring suspensions, a player such as Merrett can't rely on teammates to dispense justice and protect him as they might have a decade ago.

The modern midfielder has to discover his own self-protection racket, a way to free himself from grappling, blocking and other impediments. Dusty and Danger can be isolated in attack. Others retreat behind the ball.

For Merrett, the easiest remedy would be the one that worked so well for Trent Cotchin: to suddenly have a teammate whom the opposition fears more than you.